Very easy, but time consuming process...as I just completed the same process on 17 old Herters 72's...

1. Remove heads. Be careful to not bend the eye-bolts.

2. Go to Home Depot or Lowes and purchase Acrylpro or Tile Mastic adhesive. While you are there, pick up some latex gloves, an Exacto blade, and a roll of the loose-weave burlap from the garden center. You'll need a minimum of a gallon of Acrylpro per dozen dekes. You will also need some cardboard.

3. Lay a deke body on the burlap and trace a pattern around the bottom of the body that extends 2" past the edge of the deke. Cut that out. Trace that pattern onto a piece of cardboard to use as a template for all of the bottoms. Flip the decoy over on it's back and pull the burlap up and over the sides, marking a line 2" outside the edge of the deke. Cut this out, and make another cardboard template.

4. Cut out all of your tops and bottoms for all of your dekes. Do a couple extra of each. You must use the cardboard template for each pattern, b/c if you try to use a burlap cut-out, they will get progressively smaller and smaller (trust me, I know).

5. Remove any flaking/loose foam with fine grit sandpaper

6. Wearing gloves, take a handful of the mastic and smear it all over the body, top first, then the bottom. Have your bottom piece of burlap laying on the table. You do not want a thick coat of mastic...just a thin layer of it to start. Lay the deke on the table and then pull the bottom piece of burlap onto, up, and around the bottom and sides of the deke. Press the burlap firmly into the mastic, then smooth out the edges. You'll have some bunched up burlap on the chest and tail...trim with the knife. Make every attempt to NOT get mastic inside the hole where the eye-bolt sits.

7. Make sure that you press the burlap into and around the keel firmly, as when the mastic dries, it will want to pull away from the keel as it shrinks. This is bad...

8. Repeat process for the top...overlapping the top piece of burlap over the bottom piece. The two pieces need to overlap about an inch or so if possible. Do not get any mastic into the hole where the head sits. In fact, make every attempt possible to keep extra mastic and burlap out of the depression in the foam where the head sits (when it dries, it will make putting the head back on difficult). You will also need to trim some burlap at the tail and bottom of the chest again.

9. Once the entire decoy is covered with burlap, apply another thin layer of mastic to the entire thing, filling any open holes in the burlap. The surface of the deke should feel a little bumpy...not smooth.

10. Allow to dry and cure for at least 2 days...preferably in the sun. This will make the mastic dry rock hard. I used 4 finish nails in a square configuration nailed into a 2X4 set on the ground onto which the deke was set to dry.

11. Make sure the burlap overlay is as smooth as possible. Your fingers and hands should hurt a bit from all the rubbing and smoothing.

12. Once cured and dry, you are ready to paint. Use good quality primer (I used Kilz) and then the paint of your choice (I used Krylon spray cans). Apply two coats of primer, then paint the colors. Seal with Krylon Matte 1311 clear X 2.

my only comment.....if you use a gallon of the mastic on a dozen dekes....that is WAY too much......I get more than 2 dozen decoys from a gallon bucket with two thin layers..........I would also suggest letting the first application dry for a couple days before sanding down the fuzzies and apllying the top coat of mastic

A great UPGRADE is to use other than Herters heads....some well shaped 16lb urethane foam heads for are available through MightyLayoutBoys or ToledoDecoys or basswood through AutumnWings.

Please note, this was my first attempt at burlapping. The first half dozen have more mastic on them than necessary...but I learned quickly that thin coats were the way to go....and I made the adjustment.

I think it is better to have too much material than not enough to start....then adjust to your liking as you see a few dry...

thanks a lot guys for the help. I think I will try this over the next few weeks. I have several dozen other dekes, but hate to see these go to waste. I will post the finished product in a few weeks. Thanks again for taking the time to explain all the details.

: Did a search for "Burlapping Herters" and this thread came up ... Very informative. Thanks for the simple instructions, and am heading to Home Depot today to pick up the Mastic. I have currently 17 Herter 72's. Took them apart last night, took apart the rusty eye bolts and down to the bodies only.

Bookmarked the page ... and will give my updates through this thread, rather than start a new one.

Once again Gent's, thanks for the info.

So, a question to anyone following along, ... Is there any "pit-falls" I should look out for or know about?

A few things I'd add, if you have any serious holes or dents, you can fill them with bondo. If they are really big, you can glue in a piece of dense foam and sand it back down to fit the surface. Once I've burlapped over them I cut out the neck hole and use a piece of plastic pipe to form the wet burlap into the hole so the head will fit in. I use tight weave burlap quite a bit for these, you will have to cut splices to get a smooth fit.

Another good trick is to use a wet brush to smooth out the second coat of tile adhesive, it makes finishing much easier. I burlap the top first, but it probably doesn't matter much. These decoys were pretty buggered up when we got them.

I think there is a video on YouTube of the guy from ure a duck burlapping decoys. This videos is very informative and walks you thru the process step by step. It will probably save you many headaches in trying this for the first time.

: I've got that link bookmarked, and have watched it several times. I will say that I wish there was a better definition of the term "light coat" of mastic. I've just completed the Kilz II primer stage, prior to getting my paint jobs started. 85% OF MY DEEKS LOOK GOOD, BUT THERE ARE THOSE SPOTS THAT i JUST COULDN'T GET ALL THE MASTIC WORKED IN !!!!

Damn, it, but still look REALLY good, and happy for the knowledge gents ... Thanks

I've watched the video on youtube myself and there are a few things that we do differently.

Many of the herters decoys we burlap don't have keels and when I'm doing custom decoys I install the keel after they are burlapped.

I've never had to splice the burlap other than under the tail on a herters, when doing a custom with a head on it I'll have a single splice on the chest and one under the tail. That helps to have a smoother decoy.

Do not double up tile adhesive layers. As you see in the video, the first layer of acrylpro is fine, put the burlap on it, lay it down, force all the tile adhesive up through the fibers using things like a rubber scraper or bondo spreader, you don't want pockets of tile adhesive under the fibers, it will take weeks to dry. Once you have all the burlap down and tile adhesive forced through the fiber, use water on a large paint brush to smooth over the outside. You will notice how it lays down the fibers, you want to make sure you can see every part of the fiber weave. If you have a spot that has too much tile adhesive on the surface, it will crack. Once you complete the smoothing out with water, put it in front of a fan till it's dry, usually a couple of hours, turning it occasionally. Our humidity here in Idaho today is 60% and I could get a decoy dry in my unheated shop in a couple of hours. I do a separate piece of burlap for the bottom of the decoy, only having overlapped about one or two inches on the bottom with the piece I did the body with. The second layer is also very thin and spread out with a putty knife, then smoothed out with a wet brush. I usually do this on the second day and then on the third day I'm sealing with spar urethane and getting ready to paint.

Most of the drying delay time is due to using too much tile adhesive. Any thickness of tile adhesive will surface dry and getting it to dry under the surface can take days, weeks or months. When I was first training some of my crew for burlapping I would have to go back and cut open thick areas weeks later to squeeze out the still wet adhesive. I rarely put more than the two coats of tile adhesive on a decoy.

here are a few photos illustrating the process on a decoy with a head, a headless herters is light years easier.

I'm using loose weave burlap in this photo, it's better when working tight corners, but for herters we often use tight weave.

overlapping on the bottom.

I'll wet brush the second layer on after the first layer is dry and work it in until it's uniformly smooth and I can see a hint of the fabric pattern.

then it's painting them and putting them in the water.

The end result.

keeping the layers thin allow you to get the adhesive to dry quickly and thoroughly. Humidity is not as much of the problem as putting on layers too thick and not allowing them to dry, been there, done that. Once a thick area of tile adhesive has dried on the surface, it's not much different than putting the lid back on the bucket.

Yesterday, I cleaned the heads with ACETONE, and then sprayed them with Krylon Flat Black that sticks to plastic ... Set them aside to tackle painting the asssssssss end of the deeks. Figured if I tackled this in several sections, I'd have a better end product.

Bought them beat up 2 seasons ago.

Painted them up, but after one season, paint wore off, even in single slot bags. Man, they rode NICE!

As far as keeling..I complete the lap process and let it dry rock hard.then I cut out the keel Slot. I lay a heavy bead of silicone into the slot then drop in the wood keel that is pre drilled for a lag screw to go up into the head.

"I've been left for dead before but I'll still fight on, don't wait up, leave the light on, I'll be home soon"Chris Smither

Weedwacker wrote:Yes, those are the ones. Saw him this weekend and he still had them, so, now they are mine!

How about a new keel, what would it be made off and look like?I have four different keels on these, not sure what the original keel looks like? Would like to keep it close to that.

I had a neighbor do a deck in mahogony a while back and kept some of the wood for keels. Just rip it on a table saw and you have your keel. You can get fancy by sounding and sanding the edges etc...pre drill the head screw hole

"I've been left for dead before but I'll still fight on, don't wait up, leave the light on, I'll be home soon"Chris Smither

As far as keeling..I complete the lap process and let it dry rock hard.then I cut out the keel Slot. I lay a heavy bead of silicone into the slot then drop in the wood keel that is pre drilled for a lag screw to go up into the head.

Just silicone and one eye bolt in front is holding on keel?

Sleeping on it last night. Thinking of double/2 layers aprox 2-3 inch wide the length of keel area of burlap. Once harded I could follow your steps and add 2 brass wood screws through wood up into the double thick burlap. My wood shop teacher always said, glue and screw

About 8 of these have this real cool old metal keel, I will get a picture and post. Might keep those ...

It's not just a duck boat, it is a tatical platform for opportunity- weedwacker 101

quackshot wrote:That is a Herters Keel. They sold them in their old catalogs. I have a 1966 catalog and they are in it.

Thanks, then I will collect those when a take apart these, and use them on the decoys once I complete. As long as it is enough weight? Seems kind of light for the size of the decoy, will cross that bridge latter.

Have aprox 5 broken heads, so spent some time removing those first, that was a challenge !! To not mess up the decoy to much.

The lady comes out while i am working on them, she wants a few for the cottage as decorative pieces

It's not just a duck boat, it is a tatical platform for opportunity- weedwacker 101

If this was for me?Nothing further this time of year. Have them broke down and in bags at this time. To many other fun summer stuff at this time.will jump into them late summer and into winter. more of a cabin fever project then anything.

thanks for asking.

It's not just a duck boat, it is a tatical platform for opportunity- weedwacker 101